Our Favorite Portrait Lenses

Over the last 7 years, we’ve tried many lenses and have narrowed down our favorite lenses we use for portraits. Today we’re going to break down our top three prime and zoom lenses.

Prime Lenses

So what is a prime lens? A prime lens is a fixed focal length lens. We love this for portraits because they’re crisp, sharp and allow more lighting into the sensor of the camera. If you’re in the market for a prime lens, we recommend a 50mm, 85mm, and macro 100mm. We shoot with Canon and love our Sigma Art 50mm, Canon 85mm and Canon macro 100mm (shown above).


Zoom Lenses

Zoom lenses are great if you’d like multiple focal lengths in one lens. With the pandemic, we wanted our clients to feel safe and comfortable during their session with no masks. While we continue to wear masks during the entire session, having our 70-200mm lens allowed us to capture our clients while keeping a safe distance for everyone. We feel the quality of these lenses are comparable to prime lenses we’ve mentioned above. We love our 24-70mm, 24-105mm, and 70-200mm lenses! The 24-105mm is super versatile. It goes from a wider to a little bit closer of a zoom and gives a nice balance. This is our go-to on a sunnier or well lit environment. The 24-70mm is another sharp lens. The advantage to this one is that it works better in lower light situations but it doesn’t allow as close of a zoom length in comparison to the 24-105mm.

Some of these may not be everyones go-to lenses, but these have been what we’ve enjoyed over the past few years. If you ever are in the market for a lens and have questions, drop a comment below! We’re always here to help 🙂

Location, location!

Finding the perfect location for your family photos can be challenging for some. Especially if you are returning clients and want something different from your previous session. Not to worry! We’re ALWAYS scouting for the best locations to help make your session that much more magical.

While we can’t give out all our secrets, we’ve rounded up a few of our client favorite locations to help give some ideas for your upcoming session.

Independence Grove - Libertyville

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Bridges, greenery, and water features to name a few, it’s no wonder this location is a favorite for clients and photographers! This location does tend to get a bit more traffic with locals picnicking and enjoying the forest preserve, as well as weddings and events during the weekends. However, it’s hit or miss and we think it’s definitely a location to consider!

Vehe Barn - Deer Park

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If you’re looking for a rustic backdrop to your photos, Vehe Barn is the location for you! Located in Deer Park, this small location has a variety of backdrops to fall in love with. Cement buildings with barn doors, a large barn with a gigantic sliding barn door (perfect for those large family shots), small garden, grassy areas - what’s not to love!

Downtown Libertyville

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Downtown Libertyville is a great location if you’re wanting a little more urban vibe with old town feels. A walkable area boasting with colorful buildings and lots of brick walls.

Downtown Wheaton

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We love going to downtown Wheaton. This cute little town has a variety of brick backdrops, ivy, colorful doors and more. If you’re wanting an urban vibe, downtown Wheaton is a spot to check out.

We hope this helps spark some ideas for your next photo session. When you book your session with us, we’ll discuss everything that you are looking for and help find the perfect location. There are so many wonderful spots and we can’t wait to share them with you!